Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro got cut off by a Manhattan federal judge Thursday as he delivered a rambling in-court speech while denying new charges of torturing US citizens.
“I reject this document in its entirety,” said the deposed despot, 63, sporting a tan jail jumpsuit and looking slimmed down since his January arrest.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, the accused drug-smuggling strongman said that the charges were “false allegations” and the “sum of concepts and allegations that were already presented.”
US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein – who had asked Maduro to provide a simple answer to whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty to his indictment – interrupted the ousted dictator’s diatribe.
“A plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr Maduro,” the judge said.
Maduro appeared in high spirits as he entered the courtroom through a side door Thursday morning, flashing a smile and waving toward the spectator gallery.
The infamous tyrant and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, were initially charged with narcoterrorism conspiracy after the US military captured them in a late-night Jan.3 raid on their presidential compound in Caracas.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan added new charges last week alleging that the fallen power couple conspired to torture US citizens jailed in Venezuela, including one dissident that was given an “electric shock to his testicles.”
Flores pleaded not guilty on Thursday as well, while Hellerstein pushed the trial date back two weeks to June 14, 2027 in light of the new charges.
